Dawn by Eleanor Porter (best finance books of all time TXT) 📕

Maddy wanted to tell him no, it was futile. Even with the exact coordinates he had, the chances of success were astronomically low. There were too many variables. She knew how he felt, though. His emotions ran through her, every cell affected and infused with a love that was more than love. A bond of blood that was a constant aching need and she wasn’t immune to the pull. She needed him to succeed, to get back to her, almost as much as he did.

“We can try.” She said “There are many things we need and the first is to have one of the bracelets reprogrammed with your imprint. We can’t do it at a rejuvenation center, we need someone who can alter it so it will work contrary to how it was designed. Also, you will need the other to be wiped and ready to be used on Scarlet. It may not be necessary but your world is dangerous. It is better to have it prepared even if you don’t use it. Besides, the Rejuvenation centers will know they are stolen.”

“Who’s going to do all that?” he asked “A data hacker?”

“Yes.” she said “But a very specialized one. We’ll have to visit the Queen of the Outer Reaches. From what the dark man told me, if a thing is obtainable, it can be obtained from her for a price.”

“Think she’ll take some of the old coins in trade?”

“Unknowable.” She answered. “But the only way to find out is to ask.”

27

Maddy

They were weeks into their journey across the galaxy and their jump routes had become less traveled. Sometimes they were the only ship in a dead system as they followed the map through the emptiness of space to find the right series of gates. Jessie tossed and turned on the couch. They’d fallen asleep after watching a Holo program. Him for real, Maddy following the subroutine commands she’d given herself. The more she lived in the form of the human, the easier it became for her. She wrote code, imbedded it into each cell and tweaked it as she studied him. She formed a heart, set it to beating and created veins to pump liquid. Step by step, little by little, she started reprograming cells to behave in a different way. Instead of a hive, instead of a single unit copying a form, she created the form. She studied anatomy and programmed cells to be hard bone, strong muscle or soft skin. The only thing she didn’t do was add a growing or aging command. She only had thirty trillion cells left, she couldn’t afford to lose any more of herself by trimming hair or fingernails. With the bone structure in place, she had to teach herself how to walk and use her fingers again. Her hands no longer automatically adjusted to the right size when using a tool. It wasn’t very intuitive to keep all the thinking parts in one central location, inside the head, but she trained herself to do it. She’d never pass as human if anyone took a sample of her but she was sure she could go through a scanner or x-ray machine and everything would look normal.

Her memories of Scarlet let her emulate the way she stretched and the way she moved. She practiced in a mirror to get the smile right but she was never sure. It was foreign to her. The mouth was such an expressive part of being human and was used to convey all of their emotions. Or hide them.

She didn’t think Jessie would be able to travel back to the place from where he came but she was powerless to stop him. She understood the inexplicable ache he had, even felt it in a way. It was her duty to help him but after a time, when failure after failure became too much to endure, she was sure he would give up and they would start a new life. She would be ready when they did.

She perfected being human because in this new time, with this lost human, her true self was in danger. If she were to be captured by the wrong people, they would study her, try to recreate her and most likely use her as a weapon of war.

She woke from her slumber when Jessie called out and fought some unseen enemy in his sleep. She left the reclining chair, knelt beside him and placed a hand on his cheek. He calmed, his nightmares faded and his breathing became normal again. She stroked the hair away from his brow and leaned her head against his, wished she could fix his broken dreams. She softly kissed his forehead and felt the love of Scarlet flowing through her. She didn’t try to fix it, reprogram it or shut it down. It was part of being human and she embraced it. Relished it. Her heart beat a little faster and she tugged at the half-formed memories that had been imbedded when his cells shot through hers a few nanoseconds before he reformed.

She felt desire.

Her nipples grew hard and her breathing grew a little ragged.

She didn’t have to think about it, the reactions were automatic. This was proof, physical proof that the hundreds of hours of study and recoding her cells was working flawlessly. She kissed his cheek, ran one hand over her breasts and the other down his chest. She felt a shiver of pleasure tingle through her and her lips found his. She didn’t issue orders; she didn’t think commands. She let the programming run its course, do what came naturally. She kissed him deeply and smiled when his eyes flew open. She wanted this. She wanted to experience him. She wanted to know where the cascading emotions would take her.

“What are you doing?” Jessie asked and scooted away from her. “You’re not Scarlet.”

A new set of emotions rocked her and she felt her face